


Ice Hearts in the Ice Age

by IronChantress3000



Series: Ice Hearts: Diego x Kiara [1]
Category: Ice Age (Movies)
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Movie: Ice Age: The Meltdown, Predator/Prey, past trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:27:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22288621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IronChantress3000/pseuds/IronChantress3000
Summary: Set after the first movie, but slightly before the meltdown. There's a girl saber in town, and Diego definitely does NOT like her, ABSOLUTELY not.Kiara is okay being friends with Manny and Sid, but when it comes to Diego, STARS NO! But why? I mean, he is a VERY masculine and attractive saber. Not to mention his loyalty and protectiveness of his herd.We'll see. Will the ice melt between these two tigers? Or will the meltdown be the extinction of all saber kind.
Relationships: Diego (Ice Age)/Original Female Character(s), Ellie/Manny (Ice Age)
Series: Ice Hearts: Diego x Kiara [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1604344
Kudos: 13





	1. Predators and Prey

**Author's Note:**

> So, hey! I recently saw a post on Instagram and the poster was like, hey! anyone else find Diego from Ice Age attractive? And I went, YESS BIHH! I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE!! Apparently not, as it turns out. 
> 
> Anyway, so I got daydreaming. And I don't know HOW I thought of the girl and the plot of the first book, but BAM! It has come to me. And then, I kept playing the story in my head and I have imagined it ALL THE WAY PAST COLLISION COURSE! 
> 
> Like, I LITERALLY have the final line of the series written down. 
> 
> The problem though, is that I can't seem to write. Like, I KNOW the story, but when it comes to writing it down, I'm drawing a blank. Like, I could NOT think of a title for this book until I got to editing a cover and trying different fonts and then BAM! 
> 
> So, that being said, this book will have SLOW updates, whenever something comes to mind. But I WILL write it! It will go on till Diego begin's retelling the story to his grandchildren.
> 
> Ok, so. It's NOT Diego and Shira. 
> 
> ("Shira" might be his daughter but we'll get to that in the series)
> 
> here's the basic plot line
> 
> 1\. Kiara and Diego start out cold, but eventually are mates. (the meltdown)
> 
> 2\. Then something terrible happens and they break up. (dawn of the dinosaurs)
> 
> 3\. Then Diego finds the CAUSE OF TERRIBLE again. (Continental drift)
> 
> 4\. Diego tries to get back Kiara. (Collision Course)
> 
> 5\. Diego and Kiara's children are grown/growing up, and there's a new saber pack in the neighborhood.

Kiara Snow was hungry.

She couldn't remember the last proper meal she had. Lucky for her, she'd picked up a scent a few days ago; a COUPLE of scents. Kiara tracked the herd, but no one was ever really alone, for her to stalk and prey on. There were families, packs, watching each other's backs.

"Eenough!"

Kiara suddenly heard a frustrated yell and quickly crawled up into the nearest tree to get a better view. To her surprise, she saw a mammoth.

_Now wouldn't THAT be a meal!_

But little alone her couldn't take on a behemoth by herself, so instead she settled on the sorry green creature walking her way.

Kiara followed the sloth from her spot in the tree, slowly climbing down the trunk to stalk her pray. As soon as she leapt, there was a growl, louder than she had let out. There was another saber in front of her, the sloth behind him. The other saber looked more interested in fighting _her_ then eating the sloth.

Was he... pro _tecting_ it??

Kiara looked between the sloth and the tiger, then growled at the beast before her. The sabertooth returned her roars as he walked in an arc, leading her away from his friend, but the sloth was stupid enough to stay in his place.

Kiara saw the opening and launched at her prey, but the other saber jumped at her, hitting her shoulder, and they tumbled down the small hill, him on top of her.

"Ow," Kiara finally spoke, and the tiger got off her with a shocked expression on his face.

He probably _just_ realized she was a girl.

Kiara rolled to her feet and stood up.

"What's going _on_ here?"

Kiara looked up the hill to see the mammoth looking down at her.

"He _tried_ to EAT ME!" The sloth incorrectly accused from his spot on the mammoth's head.

" _She,"_ the male saber corrected the sloth.

"Kiara," she introduced herself.

"W-well, kiARA tried to EAT me!" The sloth rephrased himself as he prematurely slid down the mammoth's trunk.

"And I _would_ have too," Kiara instantly growled in his face, "if not for the oversized rABBIT!" She spat at the tiger.

The cat was instantly in her face.

"Who you calling _bunny_ , kitty?! I could take down a _herd_ of antelope."

Kiara laughed a single laugh.

"You can't even take down a lone MAMMOTH!" She pointed out.

"M-Manny's a friend. He doesn't count."

"Thanks, Diego." Manny said with sarcasm.

"Come on, Sid. Let's keep going."

As the mammoth lead the sloth away, the tigers picked up a new threatening sound and instantly turned their heads towards Diego's friends.

"And wHere exssactly do you thhhiinnk you're going?"

Kiara followed Diego to where his friends were to find a boa standing in front of the mammoth. It was tall enough to reach the middle of Manny's trunk, and as thick as his trunk as well.

Kiara snarled at it. If _anyone_ was going to eat a sloth today, it would be her. The saber next to her growled for other reasons, obviously.

"We'll just be going home now, thanks."

"Not sssoo fasst!" Another boa came around the left as a third snake blocked them in.

With a roar, Diego jumped at one of the side snakes, but Kiara wanted the king. She raced over the mammoth and jumped in front of the snake, leaving Manny with the third one.

It was a match of hisses and growls, until Kiara knocked out one of the snake's fangs.

The serpent wailed and lamented, sliding its forked tongue over the cavity.

And then he got mad.

He struck at Kiara, aiming its surviving fang at her neck.

He missed.

In the next round, the king snake kept the tigress busy with his head, while his tail wrapped around her front leg. He teased Kiara into striking at him, and when she did, her leg cracked. 

The cat cried in pain as she fell.

Hearing the distress, the _sloth_ of all creatures came to her help, but he was wildly unprepared. As the boa turned its attention to Sid, Kiara jumped at it from behind, catching the snake's neck in her teeth, piercing through. 

Her victory was short lived as the pain in her leg worsened.

The other two snakes saw their dead leader and slid away.

"Wow, you really got 'em!" Sid said in awe as he came to her. The other two made their way over as well.

"Guess I get to eat now," she smirked at her last prey.

Then she turned to Diego.

" _I_ got the king snake, _and_ on a broken leg!" she teased him before finally having a bite of her meal.

"Guess that makes _her_ the better hunter then, huh Diego?"

The saber grunted and started back towards his original walk.

"Great. Guess miss _top of the food chain_ can make it _fine_ on her own out there!"

Sid watched between his friend and his wounded predator.

"We can't just leave her here, she _saved_ , my life!"

"Her mistake."

Suddenly they heard a cringing crack followed by another short yell, which was kiara resetting her broken leg.

"Here, you can have my spoils." She said to the saber before making a failing attempt at walking away.

"Ohh, _come_ on." Manny groaned and picked her up with his trunk, setting her down on his back.

"You can at least stay till you heal. You did save our lives."

"S- save your li...???" Diego repeated what the MAMMOTH said.

"Let it go, Diego. Come on."

Diego whined and picked up the half eaten snake to take back to his cave.

"So, why are you all by yourself?" Sid asked Kiara.

"Yeah, don't sabers live in packs?" Manny repeated the question, nodding his head to his friend saber.

"I... " 

Diego heard the hesitation in her voice, and already decided to not believe whatever she would say next.

"I got lost when I was a kid. All the water and snow made me lose their scent. Why are _you_ lot of yourselves?" Kiara deflected.

"I got left behind my herd." Sid said almost proudly.

"Sid's an un _desirable_." Diego remarked before getting bonked by Manny's trunk.

Hearing the other saber's callous remark made Kiara sink lower into the mammoth's fur.

"We don't _care_ about Pasts. If you need a herd, you can join ours." The sloth obliviously welcomed her.

" _Provided_ we don't try to eat each other." Manny added.

They walked to the valley as quietly as they could with the sloth. Kiara had fallen asleep, and Diego was still carrying the snake.

The other animals gasped in shock as the saber walked through them to his cave, a half eaten snake in his mouth. Kiara woke up when Manny put her down on the snow. She watched Sid try to create order among some kids, but they gave him no respect.

"You know, you should probably listen to him. He faced off against a king snake for me." Kiara told the children and they all oohed.

"Tell us the story!"

"Yeah, tell us! Tell us!" The kids shouted in unison and Kiara smiled at their excitement.


	2. Wrong Words

Some days later, Sid started a kids camp at their water park of a home. Kiara's leg was slowly getting better, and she managed to hobble on it to get around a couple times. Most of the time she dust sat on and ice ledge, watching the children running around her. One time, Manny brought her a rabbit he'd accidentally stepped on. Kiara would have enjoyed the meal, if Diego hadn't teased her for eating roadkill instead of hunting.

That did it.

The second Kiara could walk on her own, she would take the saber down.

One day, Diego was out on a hunt by himself. He'd tracked a lone anteater, busy blowing dropping water from his nose onto an unsuspecting ant hill. The saber hid behind a chunk of ice, readying himself to jump.

"Ha!"

Just as Diego got over the ice, he was suddenly met by Kiara. Thrown off, Diego lost his direction and leaped into the water.

Both Kiara and the anteater were rolling over in laughter.

Diego climbed out of the lake and shook himself dry. Kiara caught the deadly look on his face, but the kid was still laughing. The saber roared in anger, and the anteater kid went running away to mommy.

"Tsk tsk! Diego, eating children? How beneath you! But maybe that's all you _can_ do! Big mommy and daddy animals too scary for you?" Kiara teased him in a baby voice.

Diego roared and jumped her, pinning her beneath him.

"WHAT is your problem with me?!"

" _My_ problem with you? I think the real question is what's _your_ problem with you?"

Diego stepped back confused, giving Kiara the opportunity to step away.

"What? That doesn't even make sense!"

"Guess you need a bigger brain. And here I thought you had a big head; must be empty in there!"

Kiara bonked his head with her paw and ran back towards camp, an angry Diego on her tail. The other animals screamed and ran out of the way, but Manny ran towards them. Diego had just gotten his paw on Kiara's tail when Manny pulled him away.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down, you two!" The mammoth scolded them both.

Kiara stuck her tongue out at him from Manny's side, and Diego snarled at her. Manny instantly turned toward her and she sobered up.

"Enough! This has gone on far enough! Both of you, apologize!"

"Never!" They shouted unanimously.

"NOW!" Manny shouted and the two cats lets out a tiny apology to each other.

"Good. Now let's find our _other_ idiot!" Manny lead them to find Sid, and the two cats pawed at each other until Manny threatened to fall on them both.

"Hey, hey! Woah! Who said you kids can torture the sloth?"

The cats came around the mammoth and Diego was amused to see his friend buried to his neck.

"Manny, don't squash their creativity."

"Hey Manny! Diego!! My bad mammal jammals! Wanna give a sloth a hand?"

Manny wrapped his trunk around Sid's neck and yanked him out of the ground, disappointing the kids.

"Look, I opened my camp!" Sid motioned to the kids' place behind him. "Campo del Sid! It means camp of Sid!

"Congratulations. You're now an idiot in two languages!" Kiara teased him.

"Shhhh! Not in front of the K-l-D-G! These little guys love me! Right, Billy?

"Don't make me eat you!" Billy teased and the other kids laughed.

"Funny, kid! That's why they're called kids!"

"I told you Sid," Manny said as he began walking away. "You're not qualified to run a camp."

"Oh! Since when do qualifications have anything to do with childcare?"

Kiara turned her head in confusion. That was a pretty cheap argument.

"Besides, these kids look up to me, I'm a role model to them!"

He spoke too soon as a moment later, the kids had his feet tied in ropes.

"I can _see_ that," Diego teased him.

This time, the sloth took the comment to heart.

"You guys never think I can do anything, but I'm an equal member of this herd! I made this herd, and you need to start treating me with some respect!" Sid demanded sadly as he hopped away.

"Come on! Sid!"

"Sid! We were just kidding!"

"Hey! Let's play pin the tail on the mammoth!" The kids shouted eagerly, frightening the adult mammals.

"Sid!"

Sid didn't come back, so instead Manny gathered the kids for story time.

"...And so, in the end, the little burro reached his mommy, and they lived happily ever after!"  
  
"Good job!" Kiara complemented him as she and Diego sat beside him on a rock.

"Question! Why does the burro go home? Why doesn't he stay with the rabbit?"

"Because. He wanted to be with his family,"

I think he should go with the girl burro! That's a better love story!" A tweety fluttered down and sat on Manny's tusk.

Kiara smiled warmly at the little bird, then stole a peak at the male saber sitting next to her. She quickly looked away before Diego could turn.

_No, Kiara! You can't like him! You can't let him like you either. It'll only end in sadness and disaster._

"They lived happily ever after!" Manny said exasperated. "You can't get more satisfying than that! One big happy family! That's the way its supposed to be!"

"Then, where's your big, happy family?" One of the kids asked, leaving Manny in a trance.

Diego looked concerned towards his friend, and had enough of the kids.

"Then, the hungry tiger _eats_ the pesky little kids!" He jumped at the kids, scaring them away.

"You ok, buddy?" Kiara jumped down next to them.

"Sure, why not?!"  
  
"I just thought you..."

"Story time's over, the end!" Manny said coldly and walked away.

"See?" Diego turned to Kiara, "Maybe eating kids is not _that_ bad!"

"Out of the way! Run for your lives!" A kid ran under them before Diego had even done anything.

"Hey, watch it!"

"Where's everybody going?" Kiara asked no one in particular as the whole herd was moving.

"The world's coming to an end!" Another animal answered.

"What are you talking about?" Diego came next to her.

"Fast Tony! He says the world's going to flood!

"Folks, I hold in my hand a device so powerful, it can actually pull air, right out of the sky!! Gather round, gather round!"

Kiara rolled her eyes at the drama. _Ugh! I hate salesmen!_

Thankfully, the charade didn't last long as Manny came back.

"Why are you scaring everybody with this doomsday stuff?" He demanded.

"I'm trying to make a living here pal," Fast Tony whispered to Manny then rolled away to another ice stage. "It's all part of my weather forecast! The 5 day outlook is calling for intense flooding, followed by... the _END_ of the world!"

Kiara shook her head in her paw.

"Come on! Don't listen to him, Fast Tony would sell his own mother for a grape!" Manny ushered the crowd.

"... I mean no! I would not! Haven't you heard? The ice is melting!"

"You see this ground? It's covered in ice. A thousand years ago it was covered in ice. A thousand years from now, it will _still_ be ice!"

"Say, buddy." An anteater came up, "Not to cast aspersions on your survival instincts, but, haven't mammoths pretty much gone extinct?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you being the last of your kind!"

Manny was left speechless, and quickly thought of something to say.

"Aa.. Your breath smells like ants!"

The anteater smelled his trunk, but wasn't dissuaded from his question.

"Be that as it may, when's the last time you saw another mammoth?"

"Oh, don't pay any attention to him Manny." Diego spoke in support of his friend.

"Mammoths can't go extinct, they're the biggest things on earth!"

Kiara tried to tune everyone out. Stars this conversation couldn't end faster!

"Look! Some idiot's going down the eviscerator!" One of the mammals shouted, and everyone looked towards the biggest, steepest waterslide in the park.

"Please tell me that's not _our_ idiot!" Manny asked desperately. 

Kiara was happy for a change of topic.


	3. Let's Begin

"OK!" Sid called down. "I'm gonna jump on the count of 3! One, Two..."

"Sid!" Manny yelled to his friend. "Don't move a muscle! We're coming up!"

The herd had other ideas.

"Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump!" They chanted as they crowded around the eviscerator.

"Jump, jump, jump, jump!" Kiara chanted with them before Manny and Diego gave her a cross look.

"Sorry," she said quietly and followed the two up to where Sid was.

"Two and three one thousands. Two and four one thousands, two..."

"Sid! What are you doing? Get down from there!" Manny asked when they'd reached the sloth.

"No way!" Sid waved them off.

"I'm going to be the first to jump off the eviscerator. And then you guys are gonna have to start showing me some respect!"

"You jump off this and the only respect you're gonna get, is respect for the dead!"

"Come on Manny!" Diego started, giving Sid the benefit of doubt, "He's not that stupid."

But Sid proved otherwise.

"But, I've been wrong before!" He said before Sid leapt in the air, only to be caught by Manny's trunk.

The movement caused them all to slide down the icy slope, one piling on the other. Manny knocked into Diego, sending both the cats sliding over the frozen water.

"I can't breath!" Sid gasped as he pulled himself from under the mammoth. "I think I just coughed up my spleen!"

Over on the ice, Kiara used Diego to pull herself up to her feet, annoying the saber even more.

"Hey! Watch it!" He punched her shoulder. He did it lightly, but the sound was loud.

Kiara flinched. It sounded like a bone breaking, but she didn't feel any pain.

Immediately the cats looked to their feet just as the ice cracked. They shared a look and ran for solid ground as the ice behind them began cracking, revealing an ocean of cold water.

Both sabers jumped at the last second, and Diego ended up on Manny's trunk, digging his nails in to hold his grasp.

"Uh, Diego? Retract the claws please!"

"Oh, right, sorry!" Diego looked embarrassed and climbed down.

Kiara was beside the sloth, panting from her run to save her life.

"You know, if I didn't know you better Kiara," Sid came over with a teasing tone of voice. "I'd think you're afraid of the water!"

In a second, Kiara had her paw around Sid's neck, her teeth blaring in his face.

"Ok, Ok! Good thing I know you better!"

"Guys," Manny called their attention.

"Fast Tony was right. Everything is melting!"

The gang looked over to the area that had been flat ice before. Now, it was all water.

"It's all gonna flood!" Kiara noticed.

"Come on! We've gotta warn them." Manny said and turned around.

"Maybe we can rapidly evolve into water creatures."

"That's genius, Sid."

"Call me 'Squid'."

 _Squid_ followed after the gang as they made way to go back.

"Gees. This whole thing's a piece of junk! I can't believe I live here!"

He tested Mother Nature by jumping on the ice, and Mother Nature replied with a growl. The gang froze, and turned to look at Sid.

"What?" Was the only thing he got to say before the ice broke and they all involuntarily fell down the eviscerator, with Manny as the boat.

They came to a stop right before almost hitting Fast Tony, bodies cringing in anticipation. When she realized they weren't dead, Kiara quickly jumped off Manny.

"Wooh! Yeah." She punched Sid's shoulder, knocking him back down as he was trying to get up.

"Who's up for round two!?" She shut up when the gang gave her dead stares.

"Sorry."

"You see! This is exactly what I'm talking about! Giant balls of fury lava..."

Diego tuned him out as he watched Kiara walk by. He'd been just like that not too long ago. Maybe the girl wasn't that bad.

"Flood's real alright,"

Diego snapped out of it when a new, dark voice began speaking.

"And it's coming fast!" The vulture landed on a branch.

"Look around! You're in a bowl! Bowl's gonna to fill up, ain't no way out!"

"What are we going to do?!" Someone from the herd cried.

"Unless, you can make it to the end of the valley. There's a boat. It can save ya!"

"I don't see anything." One skeptic said.

"Fine. You all better hurry. Grounds melting, walls tumbling. rocks crumbing. Survive that, and you'll be racing through water! Coz in 4 months time, it's going to hit the geyser fields... Boom!"

The herd screamed, and someone fainted.

"There is _some_ good news though! The more of you die, the better I eat!! I didn't say it was good news for you,"

And with that, he was off.

"He must have been a real pleasure to have in class!" Sid said to Kiara.

As if to make the vulture's point, a chunk of ice fell from the dam, breaking the water park.

"Alright! You heard the scary vulture." Manny gathered the herd. "Let's move out!"

Nobody needed to be told twice, and everyone began walking in the direction of the boat.

"Manny," Diego came up beside his friend. "Do you really think there's a boat?"

"I don't know. But in a few days, this place is gonna to be a mile under water. If there's any hope, it's that way."


	4. Girls

The herd began their migration towards the rumored ark. They had gone long for almost 3 weeks, and for every one, Sid had an annoying extinction song.

"Sid! I'm gonna fall on you again, and this time, I'll kill you."

"Yeesh! Someone doesn't like the classics!"

Manny sighed. Sid was hopeless.

But then Manny saw his reflection in some barely there icicles.

"What if you're right? What if I _am_ the last mammoth?

"But Manny, look on the bright side!" Sid came up beside Manny as the sabers walked behind. "You have _us_!

" _Not_ your most persuasive argument, Sid." Kiara said as she crossed him, but at that moment, there was a trumpet.

And it didn't come from Manny.

They perked their ears out to listen, and there it was again.

" _Mammoths_?" Diego asked the obvious.

"I knew it! I _knew_ I couldn't be the last one! I felt it in my trunk!" As Manny got excited, he didn't realize he had caught Sid in his tusk.

As the mammoth raced away with the sloth, the two sabers shared a look and ran after.

They jumped the last bush and as Manny stopped, Sid flew over to whoever was making the noise.

The gang watched as a calicothere used a log.

"Sorry! My stomach, hates me!"

"Well, Don't that put the ' _stink_ ' in extinction!" Sid walked away with his nose clogged. "Whoa! Sheesh!! Oooh, Nasty!"

Kiara knocked him in the shoulder as she walked away from him, while Manny too went off by himself.

"Uh... Manny?"

"I... need to be alone for a while, You go on ahead. I'll catch up."

"One truly is the loneliest number," Sid commented as the boys began walking back, but were met by hurdles.

Diego watched Sid get hit by a pebble, before he too was attacked.

"Ow! Hey!" He found two possums up on a tree.

"Ohh, these work great!" One said to the other about their pebble sticks.

"Cool!"

Diego couldn't stand it, and chased up the tree with a growl.

"Missed me, missed me! Try and come and kiss me!" The little _rats_ got away and lead Diego and Sid into a bigger trap that had them tied up in a twist.

"Surrender?"

 _"Never!"_ the saber replied with pride, but the possums made him regret it.

"If any one asks, there were fifty of them. And, they were, uh, rattlesnakes." Diego said to Sid as they both lay on the ground, all tangled up.

"Here kitty-kitty," the possums didn't give it up.

"Big mistakes you miscreants!" Diego tried to hold on to some sense of dignity.

 _"Miscreants_?" And they began to tease the kitty.

"Uh, Diego, they're possums." Sid tried to correct him, but that snapped whatever leash was holding the saber back.

Diego leapt off with a growl, done with games.

"Retreat!" The rodents made a dash for it.

Meanwhile, Manny was walking all lonesome somewhere else in the forest, not knowing that Kiara was keeping an eye on him from afar. He took a minute by himself at the lake, but as soon as he turned back, something big fell out of a tree.

As her _mammoth_ friend screamed, Kiara leapt off to defend him. She stopped short just a few feet away when she saw who had fallen out of the tree.

"Some of us have a tough time holding on to branches. I mean it's not like we're _bats_ or something. We don't have _wings_ to keep us up!" The other mammoth said as she got to her feet.

A _female_ mammoth!

"And you were in the tree becaaause?"

"I was looking for my brothers. They're always getting into trouble."

" _Brothers!_? You mean... there's more?"

"Sure! Lots of us!"

"Where?"

"Everywhere? Under rocks and holes in the ground."

Meanwhile, Kiara heard them before she saw them. EVERYONE heard them as they came running over the hill.

"Cat gone wild! CAT GONE wild!" Two possums cried as they ran past her hiding spot.

 _Damn it, Diego!_ She thought.

Kiara ran for the possums, intending to get them out of the saber's way. She'd just got them in her jaw when Diego jumped with a roar, his jaw clamping on her neck instead. Kiara roared in pain and the possums dropped out of her mouth as she slid hard into a tree.

"Kiara!" Manny and Sid ran to her side, and Diego stood in his place, shocked at what he'd done.

The sabers knew what had happened, but the others only saw it as a predator attack.

"Kiara! Speak to me! ssPEAK!" Sid cried dramatically.

"I... I'm fine." Kiara whispered as she lay against the tree still.

"Diego!" Manny scolded him.

"I... I didn't mean to do that." Diego apologized, hoping the female cat knew what for. "I was aiming..." he turned towards his intended prey, "for the possums!"

 _"Not_ a better answer!" Manny yelled.

"It's okay, Manny." Kiara said as she pushed herself to stand. "You heard him. He didn't want to bite me. Let it go."

Manny sighed. "We should move. You want a lift, Kiara?"

"I think I'll walk ahead by myself, thanks." And with that comment she walked off.

"You should apologize," the gang turned to see the possums still there.

Diego snapped back to them with a growl and chased the rodents down towards... another mammoth.

"Well!!" Sid exclaimed as he and Manny caught up with Diego. "Shave me down and call me a mole-rat! You've found another mammoth!"

"Where?" The girl mammoth asked interested. "Wait a minute! I thought mammoths were extinct!"

The gang stared at her.

"What are looking at me for?"

"I don't know. Maybe because you are a mammoth?"

" _Me_?! Don't be ridiculous! I'm not a mammoth! I'm a possum!"

Diego smiled. And here he thought _Sid_ was the stupidest thing he'd ever come across.

"Right, good one! I'm a newt. This is my friend, the badger, and my other friend the platypus!" Manny introduced his two friends.

"Why do I got to be the platypus!" the sloth complained. "Make _him_ the platypus!"

"This guy giving you trouble, Sis?" The possums scurried up the girl mammoth's tusks.

" _Sis_?" The gang shouted together.

"That's right, these are my brothers. Possum. Possum. Possum." She pointed at the possums with her trunk.

Diego's head was throbbing at this point.

"I don't think her tree goes all the way to the top branch!" Manny whispered to Diego.

"Manny, the brink of extinction is a bad time to be picky."

Diego got thinking about Sid's comment. Choosing mates was a tricky subject. The only female cat he'd come across was Kiara, and he'd made the wrong decision ever since the first time they met. But animosity aside, maybe Diego _was_ falling for Kiara. Or was it just _evolution_?

"Ok!" While Diego was thinking, Sid went up to the other mammoth. "Manny wants me to ask you if you'd like to escape the flood with us."

"What the?"

"I'd rather be road kill!" One of the possums boldly said, walking closer to the gang.

" _That_ could be arranged!" Diego growled in his face.

"Ha, funny!" The mammoth pulled her brothers away.

"Let me have a little word with my brothers."

"Ellie! Are you crazy? We're not going with them!" The possums complained as their sister took them into a huddle.

Manny whacked Sid with his trunk as the boys too had their own private chat.

"Why did you _invite_ them?"

"Because you might be the only two mammoths left on _earth!"_

"He _has_ a point," Diego added.

"I'm sorry. When did I join _this_ dating service?"

"Since Diego met Kiara," Sid answered and this time _Diego_ whacked him with his paw.

"My brothers and I would be delighted to come with you." Ellie came back with her decision.

"If, you treat us nicely!" One brother added.

Diego snapped at the rodent.

"See _that_? That is the total _opposite_ of nice!" Now the other one.

"Maybe we'll have ourselves a little _snack_ before we hit the road."

"Want a piece of us? Let's go!" He started waving his arms.

"Bonsai!" His brother yelled and jumped in the air.

"I got him!"

"Ow!" Diego yelled as one of them kicked his leg and he snapped around, grabbing one in his mouth.

"You know the best part? We're carrying diseases!"

The ground roared, having had enough of this debacle, and everyone stopped. Diego spat out the _ferret_ in his mouth and walked ahead.

"Ok! Thanks to Sid, we're now traveling together, and like it or not, we're going to be one big happy family!" Manny said aggressively.

"I'll be the daddy, Ellie will be the mommy. And Diego will be the uncle who eats the kids who get on my nerves!"

Diego liked that idea.

"Now let's move, before the ground falls out from under our feet!"

Diego lead the way back towards the boat. His thoughts wandered to Kiara, if she was still on the track. She was smart, had good survival instincts.

Diego groaned as Ellie and her brothers joined the gang. Sure he and Kiara didn't get along, but if it weren't for those miscreants, at least she would still be with the gang.


End file.
